Photography Blog

Getting It Right With Photography Projects

Agbeye Mercy, a 100l student of the department of Linguistics and African Languages of the University of Ibadan.

Dear Friends,

I must confess I feel guilty for having not written for a few days now. The last few weeks have been quite hectic but it’s been hectic just because I’ve been searching out for the perfect topic to talk about!

When I began photography and did a lot of street photography to get better at the trade, I never really got the pros and cons until I decided to do a project! The project which was titled “The 50s” saw 50 street photographs uploaded in 50 days. That was a year ago!

What’s a project
When you need to take sets of photographs that tend to talk about one main theme, they constitute a project. This can be photographing new born babies if you are a baby photographer, shooting more cars, taking 100 pictures using the same composition techniques and lots more ideas run through our minds!

Vitals for a successful project
The very first thing to do is the pick a project idea. When you have an idea then you need to think about how best the idea can be produced. Do you need models for the project? (if you are a portrait photographer) if its documentary photography, you need to ask yourself where best you should go to document this idea.

You need to go with the right and appropriate gadget, not the biggest gadget

One thing I hold in photography philosophy is that size doesn’t matter – brains do! A good camera being handled by a bad photographer is going to bring bad images so when embarking on a project, you need to decide what gadgets you will be needing for such environment. A street photography project needs 35mm or 50mm prime lens with a camera that can give u good images at ISO800 so as to allow for faster shutter speeds with narrow apertures (f9). It’s going to be disastrous walking with a zoom camera! The weight alone is enough to cause your downfall.

Pick only the best
So the project is underway, try not to release your best pictures in a jiffy over social media because it’s going to drop down people’s interest when you Finally release the images for public viewing! You need to select the images that will be released at the end of the project, this will require you to print out all on 4×6 inches paper then call a fellow photographer who is preferably a professional in that genre of photography. Don’t call a cat to check out a dog’s selfie! When you’ve all selected your favorite pictures, examined all the you can create the book (if that’s your way of sharing) or use the widely accepted mode nowadays, the internet! You can a PDF version that will be bought before download or just ask friends to donate after viewing.

The ultimate rule
When you finally begin shooting the project, you will meet different individuals, many may want their pictures to be on the final group of images (this happens when you start a conversation with them after the shot is taken – for street photography) but in the real sense, the picture might have lacked something photographically, don’t fall into the trap of being sympathetic and adding such images! Be real to yourself, projects talk better than paid shots! It’s your portfolio!

Now let’s choose a project

What will yours be? Tell me via the comments section below, I’ll love to give ideas that will help! You can start with virtually any camera, so don’t let excuses stop you!